{"id":18076,"date":"2011-06-20T12:52:21","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T19:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18076"},"modified":"2022-02-21T22:53:01","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T05:53:01","slug":"broken-blossoms-the-yellow-man-and-the-white-girl-1919","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18076","title":{"rendered":"Broken Blossoms (The Yellow Man and the White Girl) (1919)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;The Yellow Man watched Lucy often. The beauty which all Limehouse missed smote him to his heart.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Poster-209x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"209\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-18077\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Poster-209x300.png 209w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Poster-89x128.png 89w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Poster.png 223w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 209px) 100vw, 209px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA teenage waif (Lillian Gish) abused by her adoptive father (Donald Crisp) finds refuge in the home of a kind Chinese shopkeeper (Richard Barthelmess).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Asian-Americans<\/li>\n<li>Child Abuse<\/li>\n<li>Cross-Cultural Romance<\/li>\n<li>Donald Crisp Films<\/li>\n<li>D.W. Griffith Films<\/li>\n<li>Lillian Gish Films<\/li>\n<li>Racism and Race Relations<\/li>\n<li>Silent Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary refers to this &#8220;D.W. Griffith classic&#8221; &#8212; an unflinching early look at child abuse and racial prejudice &#8212; as &#8220;perhaps the cinema&#8217;s first outright tragedy&#8221;, yet points out that the use of various tints and the strategic employment of a &#8220;special soft-focus lens&#8221; gives the film &#8220;an almost poetic feel that tempers the harshness of the story&#8221;. He notes that the &#8220;overly sentimental&#8221; storyline (based on a short story by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Thomas_Burke_%28author%29\">Thomas Burke<\/a>) &#8220;surely appealed to Griffith because it again let him lash out at the evil city, again deal with miscegenation and suicide, and again &#8212; and this is the disturbing element &#8212; sacrifice an innocent girl to our cruel, immoral world.&#8221; Indeed, the three central characters are so elemental in their attributes &#8212; &#8220;snarling Crisp&#8221;, &#8220;stoical Barthelmess&#8221;, and timid Gish &#8212; that the wafer-thin story (not really suitable for a feature length film) comes across as more of a fable or a fairy tale than any kind of realistic narrative. This is especially true given that the age and developmental maturity of Gish&#8217;s character (Lucy) is left so vague: the 26-year-old Gish* could literally be either 10 or 15 or 20; she&#8217;s so petite and huddled over from fear at all times that we can&#8217;t really tell &#8212; and when Barthelmess hands her a doll to play with (!), we get seriously confused. (In the original short story, the character was 12 &#8212; which I suppose lends some credence to this scene.) <\/p>\n<p>The film&#8217;s terribly antiquated, casually racist subtitle will likely turn many modern film fanatics off; but once they make tentative peace with both this and the (then standard) casting of white men in both central Asian roles, they&#8217;ll likely be pleasantly surprised to find that Griffith &#8212; the infamous director of America&#8217;s most egregiously racist classic film, <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1187\"><em>Birth of a Nation<\/em> (1915)<\/a> &#8212; seems to at least be trying to portray the film&#8217;s Chinese-American protagonist (Cheng) in a reasonably respectful light. Indeed, it&#8217;s gratifying to know that Griffith &#8220;considered the main theme of his film to be that Americans wrongly consider themselves superior to foreigners, including the Chinese, who have a noble, peace-loving philosophy&#8221;. Cheng is shown at the beginning of the film to be a noble-minded Buddhist missionary hoping to convert European heathens to more peaceful ways &#8212; and thus his quick descent into opium addiction after arriving on the sordid shores of London is given a bit of context and justification, rather than simply perpetuating the trope of drug-addled Asians. (Actually, as I think about it, this piece of the narrative could easily have been expanded upon: I&#8217;d love to have seen more of Cheng&#8217;s travails upon arrival in London.) <\/p>\n<p>At any rate, Cheng&#8217;s poetically romantic yearnings towards Lucy could be (and are) explained away as merely a platonic desire to love and assist that which is most pure and good in the world &#8212; though, again, it would have been much more fulfilling to see this most unusual cinematic couple actually moving towards something &#8220;real&#8221; together. This would have required a more substantial storyline in general, but at least would have given a shred of credence to the fantastical poster (shown above). In terms of the lead performances, Peary accurately argues that &#8220;Crisp overacts&#8221;, &#8220;Barthelmess under-acts (as if he believed one change of expression would let us know that he isn&#8217;t really Oriental after all)&#8221; &#8212; but Gish &#8220;acts up an exciting storm&#8221;. He notes that &#8220;from her timid talking, stooped, crooked posture, and terrified eyes, Gish immediately gets us to understand that her beatings are a daily thing for her&#8221;, and she is &#8220;totally convincing&#8221; in the role. Her character&#8217;s ability to &#8220;smile only if she lifts the sides of her mouth her fingers&#8221; was apparently thought up by Gish herself, and remains one of the film&#8217;s most indelible (recurring) images. <\/p>\n<p>* <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/5883\/broken-blossoms#articles-reviews?articleId=157070\">TCM&#8217;s article<\/a> lists Gish as 23-years-old when the film was made, but this doesn&#8217;t make mathematical sense, given that IMDb cites 1893 as her birth year. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lillian Gish as Lucy, &#8220;the waif&#8221;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Gish.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Gish.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Gish.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Gish-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Gish-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>A (relatively) bold exploration of both child abuse and cross-cultural companionship<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Relationship.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Relationship.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18081\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Relationship.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Relationship-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Relationship-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Billy Bitzer&#8217;s cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18082\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Cinematography.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Cinematography-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Broken-Blossoms-Cinematography-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes; despite being &#8220;a bit disappointing&#8221;, it&#8217;s nonetheless considered a silent classic, and &#8220;is essential to any study of Griffith&#8221;. Selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1996. Available for free viewing at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.archive.org\/index.php\">www.archive.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Genuine Classic<\/li>\n<li>Historically Relevant<\/li>\n<li>Important Director<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> (<span style=\"color:red;font-weight:bold;\">Listed in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-static\/1001Movies.htm\"><em>1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die<\/em><\/a><\/span>) <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0009968\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmsite.org\/brok.html\">Greatest Films Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slantmagazine.com\/film\/review\/broken-blossoms\/676\">Slant Magazine Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitallyobsessed.com\/displaylegacy.php?ID=882\">Digitally Obsessed Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/5883\/broken-blossoms#articles-reviews?articleId=157070\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/broken-blossoms-1\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The Yellow Man watched Lucy often. The beauty which all Limehouse missed smote him to his heart.&#8221; Synopsis: A teenage waif (Lillian Gish) abused by her adoptive father (Donald Crisp) finds refuge in the home of a kind Chinese shopkeeper (Richard Barthelmess). Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Asian-Americans Child Abuse Cross-Cultural Romance Donald Crisp Films D.W. Griffith Films Lillian Gish Films Racism and Race Relations Silent Films Response to Peary\u2019s Review: Peary refers to this &#8220;D.W. Griffith classic&#8221; &#8212; an&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18076\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18076"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81576,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18076\/revisions\/81576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}